Holiday shoppers will click on anything that even remotely looks interesting without necessarily having any intent of buying once they get to the site.

This means if you have hot Holiday keywords, but your sales copy doesn’t convert well, you could end up going broke depending upon the cost per click of your holiday key words.

That’s why it is so important to hone your keywords so they match exactly what it is you are selling.

Let’s say that you sell holiday gift baskets that contain bath oils and lotions. If you choose “holiday gift baskets”, you would get hammered by every person who is looking for a fruit basket, sausage and cheese basket, and any other kind of gift basket you can imagine.

Unless your price point is so good, and your sales copy is so compelling that it can convince Aunt Agnes that Uncle Bernie would rather have a basket full of lotions instead of deer meat jerky, then you have a problem and your PPC costs are going to be through the roof.

Here’s a good strategy to follow during the holidays when PPC traffic goes through the roof.

Watch your click-through and sales conversion rates carefully. for each keyword. If you are getting a high number of clicks, and a low number of sales, drop that keyword. Remember, the goal here is to make a lot of sales, not draw a lot of wasted traffic.

Choose keywords which reflect the needs of the holiday shopper. If you are currently advertising “jewelery” try “jewelry gifts” or “teen gift ideas” if you sell products for that age group. The idea is to associate your product with the traditional gift-giving holidays.

If you have added seasonal items to your product line then remember to update your campaigns to include these new products. If you have dropped inventory, or are out of stock, remember to pause those campaigns. It doesn’t make any sense to pay for traffic if you can’t deliver the product.

The most best tip of all is to find competitive “niche” keyword phrases that have a high demand and low competition. With some diligence you should be able to uncover keywords which are capable of generating good traffic but, because the “big boys” haven’t discovered them, the bid prices are still affordable.

The best way to accomplish this is to work down your list of current keywords, find synonyms, and then determine how much traffic each of these words generate. It may be a lot of work, but, with a little bit of luck, it will lower your PPC costs and drive better targeted holiday traffic to your site.

If it’s too close to the holiday season, and you don’t have time for the “lot of work” and the “little bit of luck” method, then you should consider getting your hands on a copy of Keyword Locator, the amazing PPC Keyword mining software program that eliminates both the hard work as well as the need for luck. In fact, it pays for itself the first time you use it.

One of the most important factors for being successful in online business, or any business for that matter, is budget control regardless of how big or small your budget is.

First we need to define what the meaning of limited budget is. First, you need to believe in your heart that it is impossible to start and run an online business for free. Do not believe anybody who tells you otherwise.

The second rule is you need to budget at least $200 for marketing and administrative costs. To give you an idea of what these costs might be here are few examples:

1-    Administrative Cost Items:

a.    Internet Connection
b.    Hosting Service for your website (If you have one)
c.    Phone Bill.
d.    Electricity
e.    Credit Card Charges
f.    Post and Courier (If applicable)

2-    Marketing Costs (Depending on your general Strategy)

a.    Software Programs
b.    Traffic Generation Services
c.    Offline Advertising
d.    Pay Per Click
e.    Leads
f.    Autoresponder Service
g.    Any other Paid advertising Tactic

Now you can add on top of the above mentioned $200 any direct costs related to your business. Mainly this includes one or both of the following:

1-    What you have to pay to stay in business including a monthly subscription if applicable.

2-    Inventory of Products that you have to buy.

To be able to spend your budget wisely we recommend following these steps:

1-    Do not start your online marketing activity by choosing paid options. In a previous article we detailed what are your free online marketing strategy tools. We will just list them here:

a.    Submit your link(s) to directories and search engines.
b.    Write and Submit articles to article directories
c.    Reciprocal linking
d.    Posting in active forums
e.    Make your website content rich and dynamic
f.    Blog and Ping.
g.    Traffic Exchange Services

2-    Buy software programs that will help you automate the processes of the above free online marketing options. Try not to opt for subscription based services. Make sure to have software programs that have a one time payment option.

3-    After few months you will realize that you have a free amount in your budget that now you can use for paid online or offline marketing options.

Our final and sincere recommendation to you is not to get involved in any online business if you cannot spend a total of $300 – $500 per month.